Olivia Wilde says she was a ‘little meaner’ than usual to daughter Daisy in Don’t Worry Darling

Olivia Wilde has revealed that she was a bit “meaner” to her five-year-old daughter, Daisy, than she typically would be while working together on the director’s newest film, Don’t Worry Darling.

The 38-year-old actor discussed her daughter, who she shares with ex Jason Sudeikis, and her role in the film during an appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Wednesday. Along with Daisy, Wilde and the Ted Lasso star also share an eight-year-old son, Otis.

During her conversation with the TV host, Wilde noted how Daisy plays her character’s child in Don’t Worry Darling and that that she was “very good at playing [her] daughter”, before Colbert highlighted some of the duo’s scenes in the film.

“There are many funny lines of you yelling at your children off camera going: ‘Don’t do that! Don’t hit her!’” he said. “Was that your way of naturally speaking to your children?”

In response to the question, the Booksmart director acknowledged that she’s nicer to her daughter off-screen, before comparing her character in the film to how she imagines she would have acted in the “1950s”.

“I was a little meaner in the movie than I would be to her,” she said. “It was like the drunk 1950s version of me I guess.”

Wilde also shared the benefits of having Daisy on set, as it allowed the five-year-old to see her mother through a different and professional “light”.

“I really loved that she was seeing me in that light,” she explained. “Like somewhere subconsciously this is seeping in, that her mother is in charge and is supported by this awesome crew.”

During an interview withVanity Fair earlier this month, Wilde first revealed that Daisy would be in Don’t Worry Darling, with her daughter making a cameo appearance during a pool scene.

At the time, the director said that she was “dealing” with some self-consciousness about wearing a bikini on set, so opted to carry her daughter on her hip while managing her filmmaking responsibilities.

“I was like, I wonder if this experience is slightly different for men?” Wilde asked herself about the experience.

As a writer-producer of the film, Katie Silberman, who also worked with Wilde on Booksmart, watched the mother-daughter duo together, and praised the director for exemplifying what a “powerful” woman looks like.

“When I was little and I pictured a director in my head, it was always a man with a beard and glasses in a jean jacket with a bullhorn,” she told Vanity Fair. “Watching Olivia on the set, I was like: ‘Oh, this is the image of a director that my daughter’s going to have - this really talented, powerful, beautiful woman with her own daughter on her hip directing and leading all of these men and women on this set that she was so empathetically in charge of.”

Elsewhere in her interview with Colbert, Wilde shut down rumours that have arisen while promoting Don’t Worry Darling, including claims that the film’s lead, Harry Styles, spit on his co-star, Chris Pine, while at Venice Film Festival earlier this month.

After setting the record straight, that Styles did not spit on Pine, she said: “I think it’s a perfect example of, like, people will look for drama anywhere they can.”

During her conversation with Vanity Fair, she also denied claims that she cheated on Sudeikis with Styles, who she’s been romantically linked to since January 2021. The pair met on set of Don’t Worry Darling in September 2020, one month before she announced her split from the Saturday Night Live alum.

“The complete horseshit idea that I left Jason for Harry is completely inaccurate,” she explained. “Our relationship was over long before I met Harry.”